Quotes about read
page 36

Girish Raghunath Karnad photo

“I was excited by the story of Yayati. This exchange of ages between the father and the son, which seemed to be terribly powerful and terribly modern. At the same time I was reading a lot of Sartre and the Existentialist. This consistent harping on responsibility which the Existentialist indulge in suddenly seemed to link up with the story of Yayati.”

Girish Raghunath Karnad (1938–2019) Indian playwright

This story of Yayati from the Mahabhrata generated interst in him to become a playwright and he explains this here.[Sahu, Nandini title=The Post-colonial Space: Writing the Self and the Nation, http://books.google.com/books?id=xs_tj0tDnnwC&pg=PA59, 2007, Atlantic Publishers & Dist, 978-81-269-0777-9, 120]

Jerry Coyne photo
Margaret Caroline Anderson photo
Anthony Burgess photo
Kameron Hurley photo
Michel De Montaigne photo

“He that I am reading seems always to have the most force.”

Book II, Ch. 12. Apology for Raimond Sebond
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Mortimer J. Adler photo

“Unlike many of my contemporaries, I never write books for my fellow professors to read. I have no interest in the academic audience at all. I'm interested in Joe Doakes. A general audience can read any book I write – and they do.”

Mortimer J. Adler (1902–2001) American philosopher and educator

Source: F.N. D'Alession. " Philosopher, reformer Mortimer Adler, father of 'Great Books' program, dies at 98 http://lubbockonline.com/stories/062901/upd_075-4286.shtml#.VVHE0_ntmko." at lubbockonline.com, June 29, 2001.

Octavia E. Butler photo
John Keats photo
Wayne Stetina photo
David Ogilvy photo
Gene Wolfe photo
Philip K. Dick photo
Joseph Joubert photo

“I think that one possible definition of our modern culture is that it is one in which nine-tenths of our intellectuals can't read any poetry.”

Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) poet, critic, novelist, essayist

As quoted in Peter's Quotations: Ideas for Our Times (1993) by Laurence J. Peter, p. 391
General sources

Frederick Rolfe photo
Arthur Scargill photo
Walter Besant photo

“I lay it down as one of the distinctive characteristics of a good story that it pleases--or rather, seizes--every period of life; that the child, and his elder brother, and his father, and his grandfather, may read it with like enjoyment.”

Walter Besant (1836–1901) English novelist and historian

June, 1898: The Literary News, Some Novels Loved of Novelists http://books.google.com/books?id=NrAKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA179

William Cowper photo
Ethan Hawke photo
Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon photo
Frederick Douglass photo

“He read the document a second time, but the words had not changed.”

Source: Eifelheim (2006), Chapter XVI (p. 296)

E. B. White photo
Dana Gioia photo
Ernest Bramah photo
Cass Elliot photo
Joseph Warton photo
Alan Greenspan photo

“Modern dynamic economies do not stay still long enough to allow for an accurate reading of their underlying structures.”

Alan Greenspan (1926) 13th Chairman of the Federal Reserve in the United States

Source: 2000s, The Age of Turbulence (2008), Chapter One, "City Kid", p. 36.

Mahmud of Ghazni photo

“Mahmood having reached Tahnesur before the Hindoos had time to take measures for its defence, the city was plundered, the idols broken, and the idol Jugsom was sent to Ghizny to be trodden under foot…Mahmood having refreshed his troops, and understanding that at some distance stood the rich city of Mutra [Mathura], consecrated to Krishn-Vasdew, whom the Hindoos venerate as an emanation of God, directed his march thither and entering it with little opposition from the troops of the Raja of Delhy, to whom it belonged, gave it up to plunder. He broke down or burned all the idols, and amassed a vast quantity of gold and silver, of which the idols were mostly composed. He would have destroyed the temples also, but he found the labour would have been excessive; while some say that he was averted from his purpose by their admirable beauty. He certainly extravagantly extolled the magnificence of the buildings and city in a letter to the governor of Ghizny, in which the following passage occurs: "There are here a thousand edifices as firm as the faith of the faithful; most of them of marble, besides innumerable temples; nor is it likely that this city has attained its present condition but at the expense of many millions of deenars, nor could such another be constructed under a period of two centuries."…The King tarried in Mutra 20 days; in which time the city suffered greatly from fire, beside the damage it sustained by being pillaged. At length he continued his march along the course of a stream on whose banks were seven strong fortifications, all of which fell in succession: there were also discovered some very ancient temples, which, according to the Hindoos, had existed for 4000 years. Having sacked these temples and forts, the troops were led against the fort of Munj…The King, on his return, ordered a magnificent mosque to be built of marble and granite, of such beauty as struck every beholder with astonishment, and furnished it with rich carpets, and with candelabras and other ornaments of silver and gold. This mosque was universally known by the name of the Celestial Bride. In its neighbourhood the King founded an university, supplied with a vast collection of curious books in various languages. It contained also a museum of natural curiosities. For the maintenance of this establishment he appropriated a large sum of money, besides a sufficient fund for the maintenance of the students, and proper persons to instruct youth in the arts and sciences…The King, in the year AH 410 (AD 1019), caused an account of his exploits to be written and sent to the Caliph, who ordered it to be read to the people of Bagdad, making a great festival upon the occasion, expressive of his joy at the propagation of the faith.”

Mahmud of Ghazni (971–1030) Sultan of Ghazni

Tarikh-i-Firishta, translated by John Briggs under the title History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India, first published in 1829, New Delhi Reprint 1981, Vol. I, pp. 27-37.
Quotes from Muslim medieval histories

Smriti Irani photo

“I read it because I was asked to explain what the truth is. I said it with a lot of pain. I myself am a practicing Hindu, I myself am a Durga worshiper. These are authenticated documents from the university itself.”

Smriti Irani (1972) Indian politician

After reading a pamphlet denigrating Durga which was allegedly published by JNU students , as quoted in " 'I Am A Durga Worshipper,' Says Smriti Irani Amid Apology Demands http://www.ndtv.com/cheat-sheet/smriti-irani-must-apologise-or-house-wont-run-says-opposition-10-developments-1281440" NDTV (26 February 2016)

John Stuart Mill photo
Robert Pinsky photo
John Derbyshire photo
Patrick Modiano photo
Leon R. Kass photo

“I have discovered in the Hebrew Bible teachings of righteousness, humaneness, and human dignity—at the source of my parents' teachings of mentschlichkeit—undreamt of in my prior philosophizing. In the idea that human beings are equally God-like, equally created in the image of the divine, I have seen the core principle of a humanistic and democratic politics, respectful of each and every human being, and a necessary correction to the uninstructed human penchant for worshiping brute nature or venerating mighty or clever men. In the Sabbath injunction to desist regularly from work and the flux of getting and spending, I have discovered an invitation to each human being, no matter how lowly, to step outside of time, in imitatio Dei, to contemplate the beauty of the world and to feel gratitude for its—and our—existence. In the injunction to honor your father and your mother, I have seen the foundation of a dignified family life, for each of us the nursery of our humanization and the first vehicle of cultural transmission. I have satisfied myself that there is no conflict between the Bible, rightly read, and modern science, and that the account of creation in the first chapter of Genesis offers "not words of information but words of appreciation," as Abraham Joshua Heschel put it: "not a description of how the world came into being but a song about the glory of the world's having come into being"—the recognition of which glory, I would add, is ample proof of the text's claim that we human beings stand highest among the creatures. And thanks to my Biblical studies, I have been moved to new attitudes of gratitude, awe, and attention. For just as the world as created is a world summoned into existence under command, so to be a human being in that world—to be a mentsch—is to live in search of our ­summons. It is to recognize that we are here not by choice or on account of merit, but as an undeserved gift from powers not at our disposal. It is to feel the need to justify that gift, to make something out of our indebtedness for the opportunity of existence. It is to stand in the world not only in awe of its and our existence but under an obligation to answer a call to a worthy life, a life that does honor to the special powers and possibilities—the divine-likeness—with which our otherwise animal existence has been, no thanks to us, endowed.”

Leon R. Kass (1939) American academic

Looking for an Honest Man (2009)

Daniel Pennac photo
E. B. White photo
Nicholas of Cusa photo
Shashi Tharoor photo
Paul Signac photo
Robert Baden-Powell photo
Russell L. Ackoff photo
George Long photo
Anne Brontë photo
Merrick Garland photo

“The most important thing that a clerk can do for a judge, I tell my clerks, is to prevent me from jumping off the cliff if I don’t want to. That is, sometimes I don’t realize there’s a cliff there at all, that the implications of what I’m doing are really totally wrong, and that sometimes it takes another person or two other people to warn me that you’re just not reading this case correctly, or you’re just not understanding the implications of what a decision in this way would be.”

Merrick Garland (1952) American judge

[Merrick Garland, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U1a8pYMJDM, March 18, 2016, Life Lessons Learned, DC Circuit Court Judge Panel, JRCLS International Law Conference, February 15, 2013, Georgetown University Law Center]; also excerpted quote in:
[March 18, 2016, The Quotable Merrick Garland: A Collection of Writings and Remarks, http://www.nationallawjournal.com/home/id=1202752327128/The-Quotable-Merrick-Garland-A-Collection-of-Writings-and-Remarks, Zoe Tillman, The National Law Journal, March 16, 2016, 0162-7325]
DC Circuit Court Judge Panel, JRCLS International Law Conference (2013)

Harry Browne photo
K. R. Narayanan photo
Charles Bukowski photo
Daniel Webster photo

“I have read their platform, and though I think there are some unsound places in it, I can stand upon it pretty well. But I see nothing in it both new and valuable. "What is valuable is not new, and what is new is not valuable."”

Daniel Webster (1782–1852) Leading American senator and statesman. January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852. Served as the Secretary of Sta…

Speech at Marshfield, Massachusetts (1 September 1848); reported in Edward Everett, ed., The Works of Daniel Webster (1851), p. 433
Confer Henry Brougham's "What is valuable is not new, and what is new is not valuable." (The Edinburgh Review, The Work of Thomas Young, c. 1802)

Emma Roberts photo

“I'm not in the gossips that much, but something I read recently was that me and Emma Watson are having a feud. And I've never even met her.”

Emma Roberts (1991) American actress

The Family Moan, February 26, 2007, E!, http://web.archive.org/web/20060112220656/http://www.eonline.com/Gossip/Awful/Daily2005/051212b.html, 2006-01-12 http://www.eonline.com/Gossip/Awful/Daily2005/051212b.html,

Charles Babbage photo

“If this were true, the population of the world would be at a stand-still. In truth, the rate of birth is slightly in excess of death. I would suggest that the next edition of your poem should read: “Every moment dies a man, every moment 1 1/16 is born.” Strictly speaking, the actual figure is so long I cannot get it into a line, but I believe the figure 1 1/16 will be sufficiently accurate for poetry.”

Charles Babbage (1791–1871) mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer who originated the concept of a programmable c…

New Scientist, 4 December 1958, pg.1428.
Comment in response to Alfred Tennyson’s poem Vision of Sin, which included the line Every moment dies a man, // every moment one is born.

Bill Maher photo
Coventry Patmore photo
Noam Chomsky photo

“We're supposed to worship Adam Smith but you're not supposed to read him. That's too dangerous. He's a dangerous radical.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Talk at Brown University (April 2010) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBfHD2n13OA
Quotes 2010s, 2010

Garry Kasparov photo
Anna Laetitia Barbauld photo

“I read his awful name, emblazon'd high
With golden letters on th' illumin'd sky.”

Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1743–1825) English author

Poems (1773), "An Address to the Deity", p. 128.

Karl Pilkington photo
Dio Chrysostom photo
Warren Farrell photo
Rob Enderle photo

“[Google's] coming blend of Android and Chrome, coupled with Apple's move to emulate Surface, could result in a devastating outcome for Apple. … I'm reading rumors that Apple is creating an Amazon Echo clone and I think it will be the world's next Zune. Ironically, this would likely make Ballmer really happy because the ghost of Sun Tzu will stop slapping him around and start focusing on Tim Cook.”

Rob Enderle (1954) American financial analyst

BlackBerry and the Lesson That the Technology Market Fails to Learn http://itbusinessedge.com/blogs/unfiltered-opinion/blackberry-and-the-lesson-that-the-technology-market-fails-to-learn.html in IT Business Edge (28 September 2016)

Richard Rodríguez photo
Joseph Addison photo

“Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors.”

Joseph Addison (1672–1719) politician, writer and playwright

No. 94 (18 June 1711).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

Anu Garg photo
Jerome Frank photo

“(1) If a convicted man has the money to pay the docket fee and for a transcript of the proceedings at his trial, the upper federal court, by at least reading the transcript, will ascertain whether or not there was reversible error at the trial, or whether or not there was such a lack of evidence that the defendant is entitled to a new trial or a dismissal of the indictment.
(2) If, however, the defendant is so destitute that he cannot pay the docket fee, and if the trial judge has signed a certificate of 'bad faith,' then although a reading of the transcript shows clear reversible errors, the federal appellate court is powerless to hear the appeal and thus to rectify the errors; and even if the defendant has money enough to pay the docket fee but not enough for a transcript, the upper court usually has no way of determining whether there were such errors, must therefore assume there were none, and must accordingly refuse to consider his appeal. As a consequence, a poor man erroneously convicted-- e. g., where there was insufficient proof of his guilt--must go to prison and stay there. In such a situation-- i. e., where the upper court, if it had the transcript before it, would surely reverse for insufficiency of the evidence or on some other ground, but cannot do so solely because the defendant cannot pay for a transcript-- the result is this: He is punished because he is guilty of the crime of being poor”

Jerome Frank (1889–1957) American jurist

more or less on the principle, openly avowed in Erewhon only, that one who suffers misfortunes deserves criminal punishment
United States v. Johnson, 238 F.2d 565, 568 (1956) (dissenting).

Richard Brinsley Sheridan photo

“You write with ease to show your breeding,
But easy writing's curst hard reading.”

Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) Irish-British politician, playwright and writer

Clio's Protest (1819).

Learned Hand photo
Ben Gibbard photo
Robert Fulghum photo
Ralph Waldo Emerson photo
Sienna Guillory photo

“I really enjoy writing. Much more than other people enjoy reading it. What do I write? Nonsense. Diary stuff - when I want to have a conversation but need to clarify my thoughts first.”

Sienna Guillory (1975) British actress

THIS CULTURAL LIFE: SIENNA GUILLORY Article http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_20040523/ai_n12754898. The Independent on Sunday. May 23, 2004.

Samuel Johnson photo
Don DeLillo photo
Joan Robinson photo

“When I came up to Cambridge (in October 1921) to read economics, I did not have much idea of what it was about.”

Joan Robinson (1903–1983) English economist

Reminiscences, p. ix
Contributions to Modern Economics (1978)

Richard Dawkins photo

“Haven't read Koran so couldn't quote chapter & verse like I can for Bible. But often say Islam greatest force for evil today”

Richard Dawkins (1941) English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author

https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins/status/307369895031603200 (28 February 2013)
Twitter

Calvin Coolidge photo
James Joyce photo
Christie Brinkley photo
Arthur Schopenhauer photo

“The view of things [called Pantheism] … — that all plurality is only apparent, that in the endless series of individuals, passing simultaneously and successively into and out of life, generation after generation, age after age, there is but one and the same entity really existing, which is present and identical in all alike; — this theory … may be carried back to the remotest antiquity. It is the alpha and omega of the oldest book in the world, the sacred Vedas, whose dogmatic part, or rather esoteric teaching, is found in the Upanishads. There, in almost every page this profound doctrine lies enshrined; with tireless repetition, in countless adaptations, by many varied parables and similes it is expounded and inculcated. That such was, moreover, the fount whence Pythagoras drew his wisdom, cannot be doubted … That it formed practically the central point in the whole philosophy of the Eleatic School, is likewise a familiar fact. Later on, the New Platonists were steeped in the same … In the ninth century we find it unexpectedly appearing in Europe. It kindles the spirit of no less a divine than Johannes Scotus Erigena, who endeavours to clothe it with the forms and terminology of the Christian religion. Among the Mohammedans we detect it again in the rapt mysticism of the Sufi. In the West Giordano Bruno cannot resist the impulse to utter it aloud; but his reward is a death of shame and torture. And at the same time we find the Christian Mystics losing themselves in it, against their own will and intention, whenever and wherever we read of them! Spinoza's name is identified with it.”

Part IV, Ch. 2, pp. 269 https://archive.org/stream/basisofmorality00schoiala#page/269/mode/2up-272
On the Basis of Morality (1840)

Robert Harris photo

“I know I am in the grip of a true poem when I can hardly bear to read it calmly at first.”

Dennis O'Driscoll (1954–2012) Irish poet, critic

Poetry Quotes

Sören Kierkegaard photo
Margaret Mead photo
Jorge Luis Borges photo

“Reading … is an activity subsequent to writing: more resigned, more civil, more intellectual.”

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature

Universal History of Infamy [Historia universal de la infamia] (1935) Preface

Emo Philips photo

“My girlfriend always giggles during sex. No matter what she's reading.”

Emo Philips (1956) American comedian

E=MO² (1985), Track Two + Track Two continued

Joseph Goebbels photo

“I have devoted exhaustive study to the Protocols of Zion. In the past objection was always made that they were not suited to present day propaganda. In reading them now I find that we can use them very well. The Protocols of Zion are as modern today as they were when published the first time! At noon I mentioned this to the Führer. He believed the protocols to be absolutely genuine!”

Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) Nazi politician and Propaganda Minister

As quoted in The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, by Will Eisner, (10/2/2005), p.110; and in Survivors Victims and Perpetrators:, Essays on the Nazi Holocaust https://books.google.com/books/about/Survivors_Victims_and_Perpetrators.html?id=Hyg98sfH3CAC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false by Joel E. Dimsdale, p.311.
Diary excerpts

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Nakayama Miki photo
John Banville photo
Ernest Hemingway photo
Will Arnett photo
Martin Gardner photo